Out in the cold?
With winter looming, shelter’s closure adds strain to thin services for Danbury’s homeless
“We’re not meeting the need for single, homeless adults in our community. It’s expensive. It’s expensive to live here. A lot of these people have problems that aren’t being addressed.” Lynn Taborsak, community activist who volunteers with Dorothy Day Hospitality House and helped organize last week’s encampment at City Hall
DANBURY — Cynthia DaCosta bought a home at 22 and for years worked as a nurse in the Danbury area.
Butwhensheandher husband divorced, she moved into a trailer. Then, her daughter was diagnosed with a blood disorder and trial medications were expensive.
“It was medicine or the house,” DaCosta said. “Obviously, it was the medicine.”
She’s spent 31⁄2 years living in her car with her now 35yearold daughter, who has developed a heart condition and could die without a pacemaker, DaCosta said.
They no longer have the car because DaCosta could not pay the insurance.
Now they worry the city’s shelters will fill up fast because a 14bed, allmen homeless shelter has closed.
DaCosta was among a handful of homeless people who had been camping outside City Hall since Sept. 1 to raise awareness of the shelter’s closing and other issues they face. The encampment’s final night was Saturday.
She and the others said they fear what will happen when winter comes and there will be 14 fewer beds in which to find refuge.
“For the next eight months, I’m kind of stuck,” DaCosta said. “I’ll do what I have to do, but I don’t want to freeze to death.”
Last December, 56yearold David Mullen, who had been living in a makeshift camp near the former NewsTimes building on Main Street, died after falling into the Still River on a cold night.
Jericho Partnership closed the shelter at the start of the month and has worked with its regular guests to find them housing and support, said Carrie Amos, president of the organization. The shelter had been open for five years.
“Yes, there is still a need,” she said. “We understand that. We realize we’re still being called to serve adults at risk, but not in the same way.”
The organization will still offer a residential program for homeless and addicted men, as well as the CleanStart program, which provides job experience and training for the homeless. Nine regular guests have since entered the CleanStart program, while some went into a program to transition them into longterm housing, Amos said.
The closure is part of Jericho’s effort to center on its original goal to serve atrisk youth and their families, she said.
“In the last year and a half, we realized we needed to realign and refocus and get back to the heart of our mission, which is serving youth at risk,” Amos said. “I say that painfully because it was a very difficult decision.”
Volunteers with Dorothy Day Hospitality House have met with Jericho to learn who was at that shelter and how many people have found places to stay.
“Some of them, hopefully, may find that they can stay with friends and relatives, but clearly it looks like we’re going to be turning people away,” said Joe Simons, a volunteer with Dorothy Day.
Challenges
The closure could make it more challenging for the homeless to use services, said Kevin McVeigh, of Danbury Hospital, who supervises the Community Care Team, which connects these individuals to nonprofits, doctors, mental health professionals and more.
Normally, team members would meet with clients at the shelter, but they no longer have that option, he said.
“We’re pretty concerned because there’s going to be more vulnerable people with less outlets in the community,” McVeigh said.
The team has housed more than 80 longtime homeless individuals over the past three years and provides services to more than 230 others.
The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness counted 114 individuals in Danbury without a home one night in January. Seventyfive of them were single adults, while the others were children or adults in families, according to the report. About 30 were unsheltered, while others were in emergency shelters or transitional housing.
The city operates a shelter on New Street with 20 beds, while Dorothy Day Hospitality House offers 16 beds, as well as a 20bed overflow shelter that opens in the colder months. By comparison, more than 95 beds are at the Open Door Shelter in Norwalk, where 146 people experiencing homelessness were counted in January.
“We’re not meeting the need for single, homeless adults in our community,” said Lynn Taborsak, who volunteers with Dorothy Day and helped organized the encampment at City Hall. “It’s expensive. It’s expensive to live here. A lot of these people have problems that aren’t being addressed.”
For DaCosta, one of the biggest challenges is getting a job. She once worked for Ability Beyond and provided home health care, but said the lack of a house with amenities like showers and nice, clean clothes, has made it impossible to find employment
“I don’t have clothes. I can’t go to work like this,” she said, gesturing at her Tshirt and green pants.
Next steps
The city has opened its shelter on New Street during the day, so people have showers and facilities available, Mayor Mark Boughton said.
The extended hours at the city shelter fills a “void,” but that’s not enough, McVeigh said.
“We’re constantly struggling to fill a void, and now it’s one less resource for people that need resources,” he said.
Boughton said there are ample shelters in the city, and people can call the 211 hot line for the state to find a bed for them when they need it.
The city has about 30 individuals who are homeless, including nine who are considered chronically homeless — meaning they have not had a home for a long time or are repeatedly homeless, Boughton said.
“Those numbers are pretty strong,” he said. “I don’t think this is the case of Danbury or Danbury taxpayers not doing enough. I think the surrounding communities need to do more.”
Boughton said he has tried to encourage other towns to create shelters, adding homeless individuals from other communities come to Danbury because there are services in the city.
“It’s a heavy lift,” he said. “People don’t want, frankly, to have the stigma of having a shelter in their community.”
Still, the city is looking into creating one facility with a shelter and services, but has not found a location or how to finance it, Boughton said. He envisions the city shelter and Dorothy Day would be moved to this space, with the same number of beds offered.
“That is the best practice ... to colocate the shelter, plus your services,” Boughton said.
Jericho said it would donate its beds and supplies to another entity that wanted to start a shelter.
“My hope would be the community can rally, the other providers can rally and if there are ways we can support what they’re doing, we want in,” Amos said.
Meanwhile, advocates are concerned about the future of Dorothy Day, which is in the midst of a court battle with the city over whether it should be allowed to stay open.
“A lot of people in the community are fearful of what’s on the horizon,” McVeigh said. “If we lose one more shelter, there’s not magic beds coming out here.”